The Other James: James Joyce, Henry James, and Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark

Abstract

Most critics who have analyzed Seamus Deane’s novel Reading in the Dark have examined it in the context of his influential scholarly publications. But this approach does not account adequately for the book’s form, which reflects Deane’s own uncertainty regarding his autobiographical subject. I argue that critics to date have overemphasized James Joyce’s influence on Deane’s text and underestimated that of Henry James, especially his famously ambiguous novella The Turn of the Screw.